The Next Web

Technorati now hiring bloggers (and biting the hand that feeds them?)

By Boris
September 6, 2009
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Technorati used to be the darling of the Blogging industry. Unfortunately they have lost some of their shine in these past years with declining market share, bugs and downtime, and an unclear strategy for the future.

Or so it seems.

Traffic seems to be steady at around 3 million uniques a month which is not bad for a blog but not good enough for a search engine. There are several ways to fix their torn image and the many software bugs plaguing the site.

Technorati seems to have chosen the least expected one: they are becoming a blog.

Yesterday a lot of people received an invitation to start blogging for technorati.

Technorati now hiring bloggers (and biting the hand that feeds them?)Here it is:

Become a Technorati Writer!

Technorati is entering into the next phase of our evolution: original content.

Beginning in October, Technorati will feature original content on the site written by bloggers just like you! This is an amazing opportunity to give your writing vast exposure, become known as an expert in your field/s of interest, and to join a vibrant writer community.

Get in on the ground floor by signing up via the Technorati Contact Page.
Select the “New: Technorati Writer Signup” option from the “Message Type” drop-down box.
You will receive information and writing instructions as we get closer to launch date.
We very much look forward to working with you!

On that form there is another bit of information:

If you are interested in publishing your articles on any of Technorati’s channels, please include a link to your blog (or your writing samples) in the URL field. In the message, be sure to mention your areas of interest and any other nuggets about yourself you want to share. In the coming weeks you will receive  additional information from Technorati’s editors.

So what is Technorati planning? Another Google Knol or Mahalo? Whatever their plans are its a risky strategy to compete with the same blogs you are tracking. I would have also appreciated it if Technorati would have focused on improving their current services first.

Personal rant:

The bug that annoys me the most is our double listing. When we switched from our thenextweb.ORG domain to the current thenextweb.COM domain somewhere something got screwed up at Technorati. If you visit our profile now at Technorati you will either see our old rank, at 46,590 or our new rank at 202. Reload 10 times to see the difference yourself.

The Ranking seems to be the only really interesting feature at Technorati for us right now and our rank even helps us sell our advertising. In this case it probably just scares away potential advertisers though as it just doesn’t work to ask people to reload a page ten times to see actual results. Unfortunately Technorati hasn’t responded to our numerous requests to fix this.


  • JUstin White
    Wow, you have to admit though they do bring up some very good points!

    RT
    www.privacy-resources.tk
  • From Websites to Blogs
    I've just finished building some websites, and this post showed up just at the right time for me. Now, I'm off to Technorati to check out their new program for writers.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Ron aka LANWANMAN, Ocala, Florida USA

    A Store Galore! http://esafestores.com/
  • Kral Müzik
    Thanks you .. http://kralmuzik.tk
  • johnkoetsier
    This is just a continuation of their strategy to keep all traffic that hits their servers on their servers ... most links to blogs are actually links to chunks of blogs' content on Technorati.

    Technorati is a shadow of its former self.
  • patmcgraw
    At least your blog is listed - I switched URLs and can't get Technorati to allow me to claim my blog. It's been about 6-9 months and I have filled out their customer service form about 6 to 12 times without any responses. Needless to say, my opinion on Technorati is rather low and my guess is that they will fail to execute this new strategy with any success.
  • Weird isn't it? I remember Technorati being the coolest kid on the block. Now all I ha is complaints. I'm not sure how many times we requested they fix our issue but I did send another request yesterday. Who knows...
  • tishgrier
    With the rise of msm blogs, and blog networks, this might not be such a bad idea. There's still a lot of great blogs out there, but it's getting harder and harder to find them (google seriously sucks at aggregation) If Technorati's going to allow a variety of bloggers--not just those with "x" amount of traffic--to be featured, then it can actually be a help bloggers who probably have some talent. It doesn't appear to me that Technorati's looking to rip off bloggers as to help to expose and even send some traffic their way. (disclosure: I work for Placeblogger.com, an aggregator of hard to find hyperlocal sites.)
  • There’s still a Technorati??
  • I think you've speculated incorrectly here: we are not and will not be competing with bloggers. You either have to look at this a little deeper, or simply ask us. I have no idea how helping bloggers be discovered or helping them monetize their content can be construed as "biting the hand that feeds" us; quite the contary actually. In any case, we are always working on initiatives that will allow bloggers to express and present themselves to a larger audience, via presenting them in search results, a directory or publishing opportunities.
  • Thanks for taking the time to leave a reply. So when will we hear more about your new plans? We will be happy to give you all the room you need to talk about what you are planning.
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